


7x05: Do Not Go Gentle

by OsleyaKomWonkru



Series: OsleyaKomWonkru's Season 7 of The 100 [5]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: ALIE - Freeform, Anomaly Flashbacks, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode: s06e13 The Blood of Sanctum, Flashbacks, Gen, Mindspaces, Post-Episode: s06e13 The Blood of Sanctum, Preventing War, Sensate Cluster(s), Technology, The 100 (TV) Season 7 Speculation, shared memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:47:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22563487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OsleyaKomWonkru/pseuds/OsleyaKomWonkru
Summary: As war threatens in Sanctum, Octavia's team in Omphalos puts together the pieces that are key to solving the mysteries of their past - and their future.16 weeks. 16 episodes. An entire fan-created speculative version of season 7. Each episode will have four chapters, posted once per day from Tuesday to Friday.
Relationships: Bellamy Blake & Hope Diyoza, Bellamy Blake & Jordan Jasper Green, Clarke Griffin/Lexa (mentioned), Octavia Blake & Gaia, Octavia Blake & Madi
Series: OsleyaKomWonkru's Season 7 of The 100 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1595290
Comments: 17
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Episode 5! Read [Episodes 1-4](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1595290) first, if you're new here! You'll need them.
> 
> The title of this episode is from the poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas.

**_TWELVE HOURS EARLIER  
SANCTUM - TAVERN - EVENING_ **

Jordan made his way into the tavern, the place full of unfamiliar people in stark black battle gear, not the soft clothes of Sanctum that he’d gotten used to over the past two weeks. Wonkru was here, and they weren’t quiet about it. He’d seen a number of scuffles break out already, and Emori had been doing what she could to stop them, but it wasn’t enough, tensions were going to boil over.

Tensions always boiled over, that’s what Jordan was learning. He didn’t understand how his parents could have been so naive. Even if people had nothing to fight about, they’d find something to fight about. Peace could only be found where people weren’t.

Peace also only came with sacrifice, he knew that better than anyone.

So he had his hopes. His hopes to bring _her_ back and they could disappear into the wilds of the moon, somewhere away from all of this madness, somewhere they could have peace, just like his parents had had peace.

Jordan patted his pockets, to make sure he had what he needed. For the sacrifice he was willing to make for his own peace. He’d slipped into the lab the morning after all the chaos, before the ship returned. Stashed away what he needed, and from the sounds of it, no one had missed them.

Three syringes.

One with a paralytic.

One with the last vial of Nightblood serum.

And a third with the mind wiping fluid.

Jordan was no neurosurgeon, but he’d studied the drive, he’d studied the diagrams on the Sanctum computers, he knew where it would need to go. He knew that he needed to cut open the back of the girl’s neck, and attach it at the points indicated in the diagrams. He had a printout in his pocket as well, and all of the tools.

Wouldn’t be the most ideal circumstances, but he’d helped his parents deal with their medical issues as they were aging, he wasn’t completely inept with a scalpel. He could do this. He could bring _her_ back.

Jordan’s eyes settled on a Wonkru girl who would be perfect. Dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin. A bit taller, perhaps, than she’d been, but close enough. He put on his most winning smile and walked over.

“Hello. I’m Jordan.” He introduced himself, watching as the others she was standing with looked at him suspiciously.

“Okay.” The girl said, clearly unimpressed. “You a local?”

“No, no I’m not. I’m… I’m Monty and Harper’s son? The people who found this planet? I was born on the ship that brought us here. They lived and died on it. You may have known them?”

“Oh, right. I see the resemblance now.” One of her friends said. “Those peace lovers who wanted us to keep living in the bunker.”

“Do you know what happened to us there?” Another one of them said. “Do you know what we had to do to survive?”

“No.” Jordan’s voice shook, his confidence waning. “I don’t. But maybe you can tell me about it. I know you didn’t have easy lives, but my parents didn’t tell me what exactly happened to you there.”

“It’s not likely that they knew.” The girl finally spoke. “They were friends of _Blodreina’s,_ from her first days on Earth, but seemed as strangers now.”

“Yeah, I know my parents and Octavia went down to Earth together. My father and Octavia especially were friends. I don’t know what happened to change that.”

“What always happens. War. War changes everyone.”

“I’m getting that.”

“You’re new to the world, so let us make things clear to you.” The girl said, voice turning mocking. “We fight for Wonkru. We fight for our lives. And we won’t stop fighting for our lives. Your parents’ peace does not apply here.”

“You don’t have to fight anymore.” Jordan implored. “We can have peace here. Peace and plenty. Whatever happened to you in that bunker, it is far far away.”

“So naive.” The girl said. “So hopeful. I remember when I once had hope. It was a long time ago.”

“What clan were you from?” Jordan asked, hoping to change the subject. “I… my parents didn’t know a lot about the clans, but they taught me what they could.”

“I was Trikru. Karin kom Trikru.” She said. “The clan that suffered the most from Skaikru’s arrival on Earth. Suffered from the massacre that your people committed against mine. Both of my parents died on that battlefield, slaughtered in their sleep.”

Jordan fell quiet, wondering if this was the best juncture to mention that his grandmother had been involved in that massacre. That his father had supported the leader who advocated it. He decided against it, knowing that it was unlikely to ingratiate him with her, and he needed her.

“I’m sorry.” Jordan said, voice as honest as he could make it. “I was born long after that, but I have heard of that shame in our history. I am sorry about it. Truly.”

“You don’t know war, do you, boy?” One of the older warriors asked.

“I’ve just seen what happened here. The aftermath, not the actual fighting.”

“You think this was war?” Karin scoffed. “This was nothing. A mere skirmish, people who can’t fight fighting each other under the influence of some sort of poison. This was not war. You don’t know what war is.”

“I suppose I don’t. And I don’t want to. You don’t want war either, not after the bunker, right? You want to be able to live in peace?”

“We do. But no one just hands you peace. Look at the people here, angry that we’ve invaded their home. If we don’t maintain that peace through force, we’re never going to be able to make our home here too.”

“This is a new world.” Jordan implored. “You don’t need to have your… what is it… _jus drein, jus daun?_ That’s what my father said was your motto.”

“It isn’t anymore.” Karin said. “In the bunker, we lived by the phrase _omon gon oson.”_

“I don’t know what that means.”

“All of me for all of us. Or all of him or her or you for all of us.”

“I still don’t understand what that means.”

“It means that we give all of ourselves to our people. To ensure the best life for those who survive. As _Blodreina_ did.” The older man said.

_“Blodreina_ is gone.” Karin said. “I’ve heard her brother talking to his friends. She vanished into thin air when that green cloud came. She summoned it, the cloud that also took _Heda_ and the _Fleimkepa_ and _Blodreina’s_ lieutenants.”

“Not only that.” One of the younger men said. “I heard the _frikdreina_ say that _Blodreina_ had some sort of mystical symbols on her back. A tattoo unlike one our people have ever seen, and not one that she brought with her from the sky when she fell to Earth. Something she acquired here, that let her summon that cloud. It is all a part of her plan. _Blodreina_ will come back for us.”

“There you go then.” Jordan said, seizing upon the ideas the man presented. “She will come back for you. Until she does, until she’s here to tell you what’s to come, you don’t want to stir up any trouble, do you? You would want to wait to see what she and the Commander ask.”

The group shuffled about, not entirely convinced, but also not protesting against the idea of waiting for orders, be they from Octavia or Madi.

“Great. Now, the residents of Sanctum are having a party up in the palace tonight. A celebration of life, to honour all those who died when Sanctum was taken over by the toxin. Would you like to come as my guests? Get to know some of the locals? I know when you were on Earth, Octavia was one of the first to approach your people with a desire for peace. She helped create the first alliance between your people and Skaikru. Don’t you want to honour what she did on Earth, and do the same here?”

Karin looked at the others. Two of them shrugged and nodded. Most shook their heads and walked away. Karin herself still seemed to be deliberating, but eventually shrugged non-committally.

“Let’s see what they have. Been a long time since we’ve seen any kind of festivities.”

“Great. You’ll love it, it is… I’m not even sure how to describe it. Come with me.”

Karin and her two friends followed Jordan out of the tavern and up to the great hall of the palace, where the Sanctum residents’ party was already in full swing. 

Trey, the adjuster, and several of his friends nodded to Jordan as they entered. They were aware of his plan, they knew what their jobs were. Keep Wonkru entertained. Help them let their guards down. Gradually move the others away from the girl that Jordan had chosen.

Once that was done, Jordan would whisk Karin away down a back hallway and do what he needed to to bring her back.

_Priya._

She had been kind to him.

He would return the favour by any means necessary.

**_PRESENT TIME  
SANCTUM - LAB - AFTERNOON_ **

“Wait, slow down.” Bellamy said, after Emori explained what was happening. “You’re saying _Jordan_ brought Priya back?”

“Yes.” Emori said. “They’ve locked themselves in one of the shipping containers for now, but the door won’t hold. The rest of Sanctum have barricaded themselves in their homes too, because Wonkru is out for blood.”

“Why didn’t Jordan choose some Sanctum chick who believes all of this stuff?” Murphy asked.

“I don’t know, John. But we’ve been too wrapped up in our own problems to worry about him. Now we’re seeing the consequences of that. Sanctum adopted him as one of their own when we didn’t bring him into our family like we should have.”

“Monty and Harper would be ashamed of us.” Bellamy said quietly, eyes downcast. “We promised them we’d do better. But we couldn’t even make their son our family.”

“Who is this Priya?” Hope asked.

“Priya is one of the Primes.” Raven said. “Do you know who the Primes are? What mind drives are?”

“Yes. Octavia learned about them from Gabriel.”

“Priya was - well, they call it ‘resurrected’, meaning her mind drive was put in someone else’s body, destroying the host consciousness. In this case, that of a girl named Delilah. A girl who Jordan had taken a liking to. It was because of what happened to Delilah that we discovered Sanctum’s secrets, and that they’d done the same to Clarke.”

“But Clarke survived.” Hope said. “She’s alive now, isn’t she?”

“In a coma, yes, because she had to fight for control of her mind. Her consciousness survived the procedure, because she had that neural mesh from ALIE.” Raven stopped. “That’s it. The neural mesh. We didn’t know that’s why Clarke survived until much later. Until after we were separated from Jordan.”

“What are you saying?” Murphy asked. “There’s a chance that this girl, whoever she is, might still be alive in there? Like Clarke was?”

Raven nodded. “If she was chipped by ALIE, then she’d still have the mesh in her head too.”

“So we could save that girl.” Bellamy said.

“Save the girl, stop a war.” Emori said. “Let’s go. _Now.”_

**_GAIA’S MINDSPACE - POLIS TEMPLE - NIGHT_ **

Gaia felt the flicker of candles all around her before she even opened her eyes to see them, and knew that she was back in a place that had always been a source of comfort.

The temple in Polis, surrounded by pieces of scavenged technology, surrounded by the many tiny little flames illuminating the space.

But not _the_ Flame. The Flame was gone.

“Who am I now if not a Flamekeeper?” Gaia asked into the empty space. “Who am I if my faith is not a faith at all, but a technology, a technology of a world thought past, but now also here in the future? A technology that we for some reason _worshiped_ as if it were holy?”

“The answer lies within you, Gaia.”

Gaia looked around for the voice, knowing she’d heard it before, but not being able to place it, nor being able to find the one who had spoken. It was a woman’s voice, with the cadences of the old world, more similar to that of Skaikru than her own people, but still not of them either.

“Who are you?”

“Who you’ve always wanted to see.”

“I don’t see you.”

“Because you don’t want to, or because you don’t believe you deserve to?”

“Excuse me?”

“You spent years believing in the spirits of the Commanders. Believing the Flame to be a holy thing, rather than technology. Yes, you could say that the spirits of the past Commanders were in the Flame, but that was never my intention.”

_“Your_ intention?”

A figure stepped out from behind the escape pod, and Gaia backed away quickly, accidentally knocking some candles to the floor, the flames doused by the impact.

“ALIE.” Gaia whispered. “What did you have to do with the Flame?”

“I’m not ALIE.” The woman said.

“Are you sure? Because you do look like her.”

“I created ALIE. And she chose me as her avatar. But I locked her away and went to space to work on a new artificial intelligence. The one you spent years protecting.”

“The Flame.” Gaia’s hand went instinctively to the pocket where she’d always kept it, even though it was empty now. “Wait. But that means -”

“I’m Becca. Who you call Bekka Pramheda.”

“How are you here, inside my mind?”

“I am a memory that existed within your student’s mind, and as you’ve both joined the new network that is growing, her mind is reflected in yours.”

“Madi.”

“Yes.” Becca nodded. “I learned from creating ALIE that it is almost impossible to control a computer-based artificial intelligence, because of perverse instantiation.”

“What is perverse instantiation?”

“The implementation of a benign final goal through deleterious methods unforeseen by a human programmer. That’s why ALIE destroyed the world in the first Praimfaya. So as I created what you call the Flame, I designed it so that it was an artificial intelligence, a potential repository of minds, that worked with humanity instead of for it. But even that had its flaws.”

“It could only be used by one person. And when a person like Sheidheda used and corrupted it, the others could be corrupted as well.”

“Correct. I did what I could within the Flame to prevent that, but I wasn’t always successful. I couldn’t always stop the bloodshed. The Flame could provide advice, but it still couldn’t feel the way a person can. That’s not something an artificial intelligence can do. It will always lack the ability to feel, even if it has a human host who does. So its advice might still lack the spirit of humanity - that the goal isn’t everything, how you get there matters too.”

“Sometimes we must disobey in order to transcend.”

“A similar idea, yes. So what does that mean for you, Gaia? How will you transcend your past? How will you reconcile who you were with who you want to be?”

“I don’t know who I am. I spent years living a faith that was not a faith but technology, then more years creating a new faith that was also not a faith. Niylah said that I shouldn’t create strong leaders, but I don’t know a world without them.”

“Return back to what you said before. Disobey in order to transcend. Even if you believed in these strong leaders, you still didn’t obey them blindly. You were instrumental in leading a coup against _Blodreina._ You disobeyed your Commander when she banished you. You disobeyed Sheidheda and destroyed the Flame because you prioritized a child’s life over the wisdom of the Flame.”

“And what about that was wrong?” Gaia demanded, not liking Becca’s tone of voice. “What about saving the life of a child was _wrong?”_

“I didn’t say it was.” Becca’s tone went soft again. “But there in that moment you were yourself. Not a Flamekeeper, not the keeper of a faith, but a person who wanted to help another person, because it was the right thing to do. That is who you are. You found faith within yourself to do what was right, not because it was demanded of you by someone else.”

“So is that who I am? Someone who helps others?”

“If you want to be. So much is possible now, Gaia. You have work to do to get back to Earth. Talk to Octavia. Talk to Ash. Talk to Madi. Between the four of you, you have all of the answers that you need.”

“Answers for what?” Gaia asked, but Becca vanished and Gaia was alone again. “Answers for _what?”_

“Everything.” Octavia’s voice sounded behind her and Gaia spun around to face her.

“What do you mean?”

“Your mindspace is different from the others.” Octavia said, looking around. “Not in terms of visuals, but what’s happened here.”

“How so?”

“Usually I’m the only one to visit within a mindspace. But that wasn’t the case here.”

“Bekka Pramheda said she was a memory, reflected from Madi’s mind.”

“Perhaps, but I don’t think that’s entirely true. There’s more to it than that. Madi hasn’t entered her mindspace yet. I guess after using the Flame she’s struggling to connect with this other type of tech.”

“Bekka Pramheda said that between you, me, Madi and Ash we have all of the answers.”

“I heard her. I believe that too. That’s why I brought you here. I know how your ancestors came to be on Earth. I know how the faith around the Flame started. But what I don’t know is why, just that it all connects us to what we must do here now.”

“And what’s that?”

“Stop Father William. Or as we once knew of him, Bill Cadogan.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigedasleng is translated inline.

**_OMPHALOS - OCTAVIA’S LAB - MORNING_ **

Octavia, Ash and Niylah were already gathered around the dining table when Gaia emerged from her mindspace and joined them. Madi still sat in a far corner, willing herself into her mind, though upon hearing the movement, huffed and opened her eyes.

“It’s not working.” Madi complained. “It was so easy to enter the Commanders’ mindspace with the Flame, why is this so hard?”

“It is a new type of tech, Madi.” Gaia said. “You’ll learn. You have to train, just like with the Flame. It’ll come to you.”

“I guess.” Madi grumbled, still not particularly convinced.

“Why don’t you go to the bedroom and try there?” Octavia offered. “You’ll have more peace and quiet. And don’t stress. It’ll come when it comes. Get some sleep if you need it, that also couldn’t hurt.”

Madi nodded, and headed off to the bedroom, closing the door behind her, leaving the women alone.

“So from everything you’ve told us, after the first Praimfaya, about a hundred years before our time on Earth, Omphalos recolonized Earth.” Niylah said. “Is that right?”

“That’s been my understanding, yes, but the process by which it was done was out of the usual order. That’s what I’ve been able to piece together from the histories here. A lot of that mission has been classified. Which typically means something went wrong. I know Father William - that is, Bill Cadogan - was involved with it somehow.”

“Was there only one mission to recolonize Earth?” Ash asked.

“Usually that would be the case, but given that most of that mission is classified, we can’t be sure. That’s why I wanted to talk to you.”

Ash exchanged a glance with Gaia. “You might have some whispers of this too.”

“Are you referring to how Sheidheda corrupted the Flame and he was the first and last Commander from Azgeda because of that? And why the Order of the Flame has sought to keep the Flame away from Azgeda ever since?”

“Not directly.” Ash paused for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. “I’m going to tell you something that no one outside of Azgeda knows. Azgeda never sought the Flame to rule.”

“Really?” Gaia scoffed. “The Ice Queen never wanted to put her pet Nightblood on the throne and devastate the rest of the Clans?”

“Not the way you think. Azgeda, and Queen Nia most of all, wanted to rule over everything. That is true. But not through the Flame. Azgeda’s mission has been to _destroy_ the Flame. Our people saw what happened to Sheidheda’s mind when he united with the Flame, when he disobeyed the King and took it instead of destroying it. That only confirmed the truth of what Azgeda already knew.”

“But Roan wanted the Flame.” Octavia said. “He didn’t like it when I told him it was destroyed. If he wanted it destroyed himself, why didn’t he do it?”

“Devotion to the Flame was at an all-time high among the clans after Lexa’s rule. It was politically prudent for him to keep it in one piece if he was to keep order. Order which Skaikru demanded of him to solve the problem of Praimfaya, if you recall.”

“So why did Azgeda want to destroy the Flame, already before Sheidheda’s time?” Gaia asked.

“You already know the answer to the question.” Ash said. “You just don’t know you know it. How did the other clans view Azgeda?”

“Ruthless invaders.”

Ash nodded. “Exactly. And that’s not only because of the Ice Queen’s tendency towards war. That is because that’s what Azgeda was from the beginning of our history.”

“Invaders. A second wave of colonists from Omphalos.” Octavia said.

“That name was lost, as well as the source of our origins, but yes, our stories said that we came to our home in the Ice Nation from a faraway land. That Roan’s great-grandfather was tasked by his mentor to accomplish two things, and then we could return to our rightful home.”

“Destroy the Flame I’m assuming is one of them.” Octavia said. “And the other?”

“A secret known only to a few amongst the clan. A secret that I didn’t know the full truth of, but over the past few days I’ve managed to fill in the blanks. It was a secret that I was being trained to know, but then…” Ash looked down. “… then I killed my best friend to save my own life, and was tasked with her mission instead. I was being trained to be a Guardian, but then my path turned to spy and Queen’s Guard instead.”

“What secret, Ash?” Niylah asked.

“Guard the passage. That’s as much as I knew of the mission before my path changed. But I now believe that meant that I was being trained to guard the passage to the keystone in the bunker. During the war before Praimfaya, we had to hold the temple above all else. Those were our orders.”

“The bunker was suspiciously well-maintained for having been abandoned for a hundred years when we found it.” Gaia said. “So you believe that Azgeda soldiers - or Guardians, as you called them - _lived_ there, for years on end?”

Ash nodded. “It wouldn’t have needed to be a large number. And they would have had a rotation, changing regularly whenever the Flamekeepers were out of the temple. When the war started, they probably emerged from there to join our battle ranks, which is why it appeared abandoned.”

“So how does this relate to Bill Cadogan?” Gaia asked. “He was the founder of the Second Dawn Cult. He is the one who murdered -” Her eyes widened. “He’s the one who murdered Becca. Who wanted the Flame gone.”

“Exactly.” Octavia said. “Thank you, Ash, for confirming what I thought might be true. That there was indeed a second colonizing force sent from Omphalos, and that one was sent by Bill Cadogan himself, to continue the mission that he’d started.”

“So then how was Cadogan alive both before the first Praimfaya, and is still alive today? Something with the time differences between worlds?” Niylah asked. “Is he like you, Octavia?”

“No. He isn’t like me. I spent a long time trying to figure out his story. A lot of it still has blanks. It also doesn’t help that much of his history is also classified. That’s what happens when someone is one of the Awakened. They control the information made available about themselves.”

“The Awakened?” Ash asked.

“Omphalos citizens are dedicated to their knowledge and research and discovery. If something could take a long time of waiting in their research, or if their knowledge needs something else first to be able to actualize it, something that they can’t create themselves, they have the option to put themselves into cryosleep. When they do that, they program the system with a set of variables with which the computer will know to awaken them. Those variables are known only to that individual, unless they choose to share them.

“Many people who choose cyrosleep never wake, because they’re still waiting. But the few that do, they’re called the Awakened. They are granted many privileges in Omphalan society. The title of Father or Mother, since they typically come from decades or even centuries before. The opportunity to control the information that is known about them. You can believe that he locked all of that down quickly when he woke, so most of what I’ve learned has been word of mouth.”

“So Cadogan has been in cryo for… for how long?” Gaia asked.

“I don’t know how many years passed here.” Octavia said. “But he’s been awake for almost fifteen years.”

“Do you know what variables woke him up?” Ash asked.

“It was me.” Octavia whispered. “It was what I did.”

_**FIFTEEN YEARS AGO BY OMPHALOS TIME**_  
_**TWO MONTHS AFTER FIRST TERRAN (EARTH) MISSION**_  
_**OMPHALOS - HOSPITAL - DAY**_

“So Charmaine tells me your nightmares have subsided again.” Dr Warner said. “They were pretty bad after we returned from Terra, weren’t they? But they’re gone now.”

“Yeah.” Octavia said, shifting in the armchair across from her. “I guess.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve established a pattern to your nightmares. They are usually caused by heavy stress of some kind. But they go away when you have a project to work on that isn’t stressing you out.”

“Yeah. But what does that have to do with it being a good or a bad thing?”

“That depends on what your project is.”

Octavia was silent. She’d been able to keep her project from prying eyes, not even Diyoza knew what she was working on. Her appointments with Dr Warner were weekly now, not daily as when she’d first arrived on Omphalos, which meant fewer prying words into her thoughts too.

“I understand if you’re angry, Octavia.” Dr Warner continued. “If I was in your position I would be too.”

“What do you mean?”

“I know you’re wondering why we didn’t help you when you were trapped in that bunker. You’re wondering how we could have ignored your pleas for help.”

“So what if I am?”

“Anger is normal. When I was given your classified file from the archives, I was angry for you too.”

“How long have you known? When did they tell you?”

“A week before we went on the mission. People had been combing through the archives since you arrived on Omphalos, but we have a lot of archival footage from many worlds, and most of it never ends up being relevant. So it took them time to find it. You have to understand, with the time dilation, the events that took place in the bunker while Wonkru was living there are almost four centuries ago for us. So you do also need to know that no one who is alive today was among the people who made the choice to deny you help.”

“Is that the therapist version of ‘revenge is pointless’?”

“Has revenge crossed your mind?”

“Would it cross yours?”

“It would.”

Octavia nodded, reaching into her pocket. “So you understand why I have to do this. It isn’t personal.”

She dove across the room, grabbing Dr Warner’s head, pushing it down so that she could drive the needle of the memory device into her spine. The memory injected, Octavia stepped back, watching, waiting, seeing how it would work.

Dr Warner went rigid for a moment, trembling as her eyes glazed over, and as the minutes passed, the trembling turned into convulsions. After some time, the convulsions stopped abruptly, and Dr Warner’s gaze turned back to normal.

Octavia knew she should probably run, but she stood frozen as Dr Warner struggled to sit properly again, unable to move, feeling as helpless as she had that day, the day Dr Warner had just seen, that fateful day in the cafeteria at the start of the Dark Year.

“So that’s what it was like.” Dr Warner finally spoke, her words a faint whisper. She turned to face Octavia with tears in her eyes “I know you’ve told me of that day, but _feeling_ it… I’m so sorry that happened to you. And on behalf of my people, I’m so sorry that we didn’t prevent it when we had the power to.”

Of everything Octavia thought she’d hear, that wasn’t what she’d been expecting. She remained frozen as Dr Warner got to her feet, coming over to her and removing the device from her hands, setting it on her desk.

“I understand why you did this, Octavia.” She said. “And I’m not going to report you or tell anyone what you did. I’ll also erase the footage of this appointment. But I don’t think I need to tell you that there are better ways to accomplish what you seek. Making others feel your pain won’t bring justice. It won’t change anything. And I know that’s what you truly seek.”

“So what if I do?” Octavia whispered.

“If you do, then do it. Bring change. You’ve done it before. Your very existence was a rebellion against the society you were born to. You were a revolutionary from your first breath, and you’ve changed every society that you’ve touched because you had a vision for how the existing order was unfair and a plan to change it.”

“What are you saying?”

“What is your plan to change this one?”

**_OMPHALOS - OCTAVIA’S LAB - MORNING_ **

“Dr Warner kept her promise.” Octavia said. “She did erase the footage of that day. No other human ever laid eyes on it. But that doesn’t mean the footage went unnoticed by tech.”

“Something in it triggered a condition of Cadogan’s crypod?” Ash asked.

“It did. I didn’t know that, of course. None of us did, not even he did. But he took his time, he did his research on everything that had happened since he had gone to sleep. Everything that had happened that was strange and unusual in the years and months before he woke up. Then he put the pieces together and found me.”

“Do you know the condition now?” Niylah questioned. “What condition triggered it?”

“What’s always at the root of any generations-old conflict we’ve seen. Tech.”

**_SANCTUM - VILLAGE - MORNING_ **

Emori led the way through the village, Bellamy, Hope, Raven, Murphy, Raven, Jackson and Indra close on her heels. Halfway there, Bellamy heard Indra go down with another wave of the memory, and Jackson stopped to help her.

Bellamy paused, wondering if he should stay too, wondering if his memory bead would get triggered at an inopportune moment, but Jackson whispered _“Go!”_ to him, and he went.

As they neared the angry crowd of Wonkru, that thankfully didn’t notice them yet, Raven stopped Bellamy, resting a hand on his arm, then sliding her hand down it in a very _not-Raven_ gesture. It was almost intimate, as if…

“Echo?” Bellamy asked.

Raven’s stance shifted. “Yes. Though I’m not using that name anymore. But now’s not the time for that.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Just to remind you to talk from your heart. Remember when you talked Riley down from shooting Roan? Use that.”

“To talk to Wonkru?”

“No. Jordan. Let the others handle the crowd. You talk to Jordan.” She looked around at the others around them. “Bring Hope with you.”

“Okay, I -”

Raven stepped back and resumed moving in the direction of the shipping containers, not looking back, and it was clear that Echo was gone.

As they approached the crowd of Wonkru, some of the people on the fringes of the crowd began to notice them, but that didn’t stop the group in the middle, closest to the shipping container, from trying to push it over, working together on one side to try to tip it over onto the other side. That being unsuccessful, others tried scaling the sides, someone bringing a ladder to climb onto the roof to enter through a skylight.

“Stop!” Bellamy yelled. “Stop this now.”

A few people turned to look at him with sneers.

“Who are you to tell us what to do? We don’t answer to you.” A man said, shoving Bellamy backwards, though he was prevented from falling over by Murphy and Emori behind him.

“The man in there is my friends’ son. He does answer to me.”

“Do you know what he did?” A woman asked, stalking over to them as more people started to take notice. “He used this world’s murderous technology to kill one of us.”

“I know.” Bellamy said, holding his hands up to show he wasn’t a threat. “I know that. But she might not be dead. It is possible that we could save her. But to see that, to know that, I need you to let two of us in to talk to him. Two of us and two of you - whoever that girl’s closest friends are. Can we do that?”

“How can you defend him when this world’s people did this to some of your people? How can you call him one of _your_ people when he’s been taken over by _their_ false religion?”

“I’m not - I’m not defending what he did.”

“But he understands why he did it. Which is why he can undo it.” Hope called out, though Bellamy looked at her in confusion.

“What?” Bellamy whispered to her as she came to stand next to him.

“Work with me here.” Hope hissed. “Just go with it.”

“So please let us through. No one has to die.” Bellamy addressed the crowd again. “We can find out if your friend can be saved. If she can, then we will do that and then we put this all behind us.”

“And if she can’t? What then?” A woman demanded.

“If she can’t, then we will address that and what to do at that point.” Bellamy said. “Please. We’ve all lived through so much violence, don’t you want it to stop?”

“The last time you tried to stop a war, the results were worse than what would have happened had we just marched when the time was right.” A burly blond man accused Bellamy. “And now because of that, we’re on a completely different planet, both _Heda_ and _Blodreina_ are gone, and you do not command in their stead. You might be _Blodreina’s_ brother, but to us you are no one.”

“They are not gone forever.” Bellamy said. “They will come back. And when they do -”

 _“Heda en Blodreina don komba raun graun.” (Heda and Blodreina have returned to Earth.)_ Hope declared. _“Kom **yu** graun. Yumi ste bak op houm. Chit don kom au hir, set raun hir. Heda en Blodreina ste lid yo in brana sonraun.” (To **your** Earth. We are are going home. What happened here, stays here. Heda and Blodreina will bring you new life.)_

_“Ha?” (How?)_

_“Teik osir min op. Taim teik osir min op en chich em op, taim osir chich yu op.” (Let us enter. If you let us enter and let us talk to him, then we will tell you.)_


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning:** Brief mention of spousal abuse and domestic violence.

**_SANCTUM - VILLAGE - MORNING_ **

After Hope’s proclamation, Wonkru did step aside to allow her, Bellamy and two of Karin’s friends - Quincy and Vernon - to approach the door of the shipping container.

Bellamy pounded on the door. “Jordan! It’s Bellamy. Please let me in.”

“What are you going to do?” Came Jordan’s muffled voice.

“We just want to talk. I promise. Four of us want to come inside. No weapons. Just talking.”

“You can’t kill her this time. I won’t let you touch her.”

“No one is touching anyone. We’re just talking. No one is going to hurt you.”

“Right. Because that always goes according to plan.”

“Please, Jordan.” Bellamy said. “If you don’t let us in to talk now, Wonkru will get into this shipping container eventually. And you will both probably die if that happens. But if we can talk now, then there’s a chance we can avoid that. Please. It’s what your father would have wanted.”

“Don’t talk to me about my father!” Jordan bellowed. “Just - don’t.”

Bellamy heard a mumbled voice within the shipping container, probably Priya, he didn’t know if there were other Sanctum residents there with them. But the result of that was the door opening a crack, Jordan’s face coming into view.

“Who is coming with you?”

“Hope, Diyoza’s daughter. And two of Karin’s friends.”

“Diyoza’s daughter?” Jordan was confused.

“Long story.” Hope said. “Short version is, I grew up on a different planet where time moves differently from here. My mother and Octavia raised me. I know all of Octavia’s stories. I know why you did what you did, Jordan. I understand. So does he.” She looked at Bellamy. “He just doesn’t know it yet.”

“Quincy and Vernon are unarmed. We’re just talking, okay?” Bellamy said. “Please.”

Jordan opened the door a bit more, letting Hope, Bellamy, Quincy and Vernon slip inside. He closed and barred it again quickly afterward.

Surveying the living quarters in the container, they saw two Sanctum residents - the adjuster who had been with Jordan the night they took down the Primes, and another man wearing the adjuster uniform. Then he saw a girl in Wonkru clothing, but her posture and demeanour was familiar, even if on a different face.

“We meet again.” Priya said, looking at Bellamy. “Tell me, will this host last an even shorter time than the last one? The girl’s already dead. There’s no point in wasting her life by killing me.”

“The girl might not be dead. That’s what we’re here to find out.”

Priya sighed. “I haven’t slept since my resurrection, so I can’t tell, but do you mean to tell me this girl might also have a neural mesh in her head, like Clarke did? Did Earth hand them out to just anyone?”

“Something like that.” Bellamy said, turning to Quincy and Vernon. “How long have you known Karin?”

“We grew up together.” Vernon said. “She and I both grew up in TonDC.”

“We’ve trained as warriors together for years.” Quincy said. “We survive the bombing of TonDC side by side.”

“Good. Then I need you to tell me something important. Before Praimfaya came, in the months before that, was Karin a part of the City of Light? Did she take one of the chips that Jaha brought to your land?”

“With the woman in the red dress? The goddess who made us crucify our friends and family if they refused to take the chip?” Vernon asked.

“Yeah. That one.”

Quincy pulled the scarf off from around his neck, revealing a long scar. “Karin did this to me under her influence. I would have died had _Wanheda_ not destroyed the City of Light when she did.”

“So Karin was in the City of Light?” Bellamy confirmed. “She took the chip?”

“Yes.” Vernon said.

Bellamy turned to Jordan. “See? You’re not a murderer. You take the chip out, Karin comes back to life. That crowd of angry people out there? They go away and you’re free to go.”

“But without her.” Jordan whispered. “She’ll be gone. You won’t put her in another body.”

“Jordan… the she who you cared about was already gone.” Bellamy said gently. “That’s not Delilah. That’s Priya. Priya stole Delilah’s body, you remember that, don’t you?”

“I cared about Delilah.” Jordan sad. “But then when I was injured, Priya was the one who took care of me. None of you did. None of you even came to visit. She was the only one who cared. None of you did. None of you who my parents called _family.”_

“Hope? A little help here?” Bellamy whispered. “I’ll need that hint of how I’m supposed to understand this.”

“Jordan grew up knowing only his parents. Never leaving the ship. Then when you all woke up, he expected the family his parents had promised, but you only saw him as an extension of his parents, not his own person. So he connected with someone who _did_ see him as his own person. Then she was violently torn away from him, and in Priya’s case in her last host, it was because of someone who he’d considered family. Because of you. Tell me you recognize this story, because you’ve seen it before.”

“My sister.” Bellamy whispered.

Hope nodded, turning to Jordan. “Octavia is sorry for what she said about your father, way back when you were on the ship. She was in so much pain and couldn’t recognize it at the time, but you and she have a lot in common. And what she did after she lost her lover, after she lost Lincoln - that was just the beginning of a darkness that it took her over a decade to recover from. She doesn’t want that to happen to you. She can help you.”

“How?” Jordan asked, shaking as he backed up against the wall, though Hope was keeping her distance. “How can she help me? Everyone says she vanished into the Anomaly.”

“And I came out of it when she did. She will be back, Jordan. She’s brought something wonderful to humanity, and she wants to share it with you, with everyone. It is something that will help you learn how to deal with your feelings. Help you heal from the losses you’ve experienced. Not only Delilah and Priya, but your parents as well. Healing is not easy, but believe me when I say it will be easier if you start now than if you go down this road of doing anything to bring back or avenge those you’ve lost.” 

“I see no one is asking for my opinion.” Priya said, voice full of haughtiness. “What if I don’t want to leave this host?”

“That’s going to happen one way or the other.” Bellamy said. “Whether you give it up willingly or not will dictate whether or not your mind drive survives the procedure.”

“Oh come on, we all know you’re not going to stand for someone else becoming a host. My life is over.”

“Your _life_ was over more than 200 years ago.” Bellamy said. “I’m sorry that happened to you, dying as you did during the red sun. I know it also probably wasn’t your choice to be resurrected in your first host. But that doesn’t justify continuing to take lives with subsequent ones.”

“Like you’re so perfect.” Priya scoffed. “How many people have you killed to protect your life? The lives of your family and friends?”

“More than I can count.” Bellamy said. “I want to stop doing that. I want to stop the killing.”

“You’d also prefer that your sense of self wasn’t eaten away, wouldn’t you, Priya?” Hope asked, giving her one of her intense looks. “You would prefer it if the data on your mind drive wasn’t slowly eaten away?”

“What are you talking about?” Priya asked.

“There’s a computer virus that calls himself a man. He’s loose somewhere on this world. If you have a mind drive active in a body, you are vulnerable to being infected. To being corrupted. To being taken over. You wouldn’t just lose a body, you would lose what there is of you on that drive as well. Going dormant in that drive is the best decision you can make. Perhaps you’ll never go into another human body again. But maybe sometime in the future people will create robots and your consciousness can live on in one of them. But you won’t exist to find out if you let this computer virus eat away at you.”

“So what’s it going to be, Priya?” Bellamy asked. “Willingly give up this host and go dormant, or are we going to fight, which I promise we’ll win, and your drive will be destroyed forever?”

Priya walked over to Jordan, taking his hands in hers. “I appreciate what you did for me. I won’t ever forget it. But I won’t risk not ever being able to come back. You have people that care about you, Jordan. You won’t be alone.”

“We’ll do better.” Bellamy promised. “I know we haven’t been here for you. But we will. We’ll get to know you, as the person you are, not as what we remember your parents to be. So please. Take out the drive. Let Priya go. Bring Karin back. You can undo what you did, most people don’t have that opportunity.”

Jordan nodded, slowly. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything.”

“It’s okay.” Bellamy said, bringing him into a hug “We all make mistakes. What matters is what we do after to set things right.”

**_OMPHALOS - OCTAVIA’S LAB - AFTERNOON_ **

“My tech had triggered the automatic system, even if no human ever knew what I did besides Dr Warner. And she _understood_ my pain. So after that first hit of memories, she didn’t experience any further flashes. But she did help me realize that there was a better way to achieve my mission, and so that’s when I started developing the empathy tech that we now share. She was the first person to take it after me. Most of what we know now about being able to share emotions, feelings, skills, memories - we learned together.”

“When did Cadogan come to know about it?” Niylah asked.

“Sooner than I would have expected. He had his eyes on me, and as the network that Dr Warner and I cultivated in Omphalos grew, he got a spy inside of it. Not for long, and we were able to disconnect him, but that’s when I knew I needed to be very careful with what we did next. I started to build this secret lab, and one of Dr Warner’s contacts was a guard in the keystone building, who provided me access to slide between worlds without official permission. By the time we were caught by other guards, enough people on the Council had already been brought into the network via Dr Warner’s blood that they looked the other way as I continued my mission across worlds.”

“I thought most people had your blood.” Ash said. “But now you’re saying they had Dr Warner’s?”

“Most people across the different worlds have my blood. But in Omphalos itself, to protect me, Dr Warner insisted we bring people in via her instead. That way, if someone was a spy, they wouldn’t be led directly to me and the worlds I’d been to.”

“Why would that be a concern?” Gaia asked.

“Cadogan believed that tech and humanity shouldn’t mix. After all, we know he killed Becca for that. As soon as he learned of what I was doing, he was working to counter it. By keeping the other worlds several steps removed from the network in Omphalos, it would be harder for any would-be spies to find out where I’d been, who I’d talked to. Because if Cadogan found out, well… it wouldn’t end well. He’s been trying to find a way to purge my tech, but he hasn’t been able to find the key to do so.”

“So what’s our mission then?” Ash asked. “Find that key before he does, and keep it away from him?”

“No. Our mission is to find the key to unlocking him. There’s something in his past that is _his_ hidden pain - the reason why he hates mixing humanity with tech, the root of that. Once we unlock his pain, we unlock him, and he can heal from a pain that’s been with him for centuries. He can then do better.”

“You want him to join us.” Niylah said slowly. “Even after everything he’s done?”

“He doesn’t have to, it is enough to stop his crusade against my work, but if he wants to, yes, I will welcome him.” Octavia tugged on a thread on the cuff of her jacket. “I’ve learned a lot about forgiveness. Both forgiving one’s self and forgiving others. When I first entered my mindspace here after I took my tech, I revisited some of the most painful parts of my past. And while I recognized that the different choices I made in there didn’t change the choices I’d made in my past, it did give me what I needed to be able to move forward and make better choices.”

“What did you see in your mindspace?” Niylah asked.

 _“Blodreina._ Lincoln. Pike. So much fear and anger and anguish.” Octavia’s mouth quirked into a half-smile. “I saw that mindspace again when I was back in Sanctum, and Gabriel gave me the red sun toxin to help me regain my memories, but instead I walked into the darkest corner of my mind - again, not having known that I’d been through it before.”

“So we need information on Cadogan’s history.” Ash said. “What do we know about him, besides that he was the founder of the Second Dawn Cult? Doesn’t that mean he was from Earth?”

“No.” Octavia said. “He was originally from here. Omphalos. He knew how to use the keystone to get back here because he’d used it to get to Earth. He built the bunker over it for that reason.” Octavia said. “And I know that because he told me.”

**_FIFTEEN YEARS AGO BY OMPHALOS TIME_ **  
**_THREE MONTHS AFTER FIRST TERRAN MISSION_ **  
**_OMPHALOS - LOOKOUT POINT - EVENING_ **

The sun was setting over Omphalos as Octavia made her way up the winding path to her favourite lookout point over the city. Since she’d come to Omphalos, she had always been drawn to the high points - a reaction to years under the ground, she surmised. She liked to come to this one to sit, to watch, to think.

Another mission to Earth was in the works, and while Octavia went to work every day and went through the motions of her work, her mind was elsewhere. All of her thoughts were focused on what Dr Warner had asked her - what was her plan to change the world?

The memory tech hadn’t been the answer. She’d known that as soon as she’d plunged the needle into Dr Warner’s spine. But it still needed to be something that fostered empathy. Something that encouraged people to look within themselves to be able to understand others, to feel their pain, to understand it and work towards a better world.

That all felt so simple in theory, but Octavia didn’t know how that could ever be put into practice.

As she sat on the rocks looking out over the city, she heard sounds coming from below, noises that gave warning of someone else approaching the same lookout point.

A middle-aged man came into view between the trees, and he wound his way through the rocks to come take a seat next to her.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” He asked.

“Yeah.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“It’s been all over the news. You’re the first Awakened in over a century. Father William, they call you.”

“Yes. But that name erases something of me. Something of the legacy of this place, for after my parents passed into legend, so did our family name and the power that once came with it.”

“What was that family name?”

“Cadogan. My name is Bill Cadogan.”

Octavia froze. She knew that name from the Second Dawn bunker, of course. He’d built the place in the years before the bombs on Earth. She’d read a number of the writings he’d left behind, but nowhere in the bunker had there ever been a photograph of the man.

“My name means something to you. I did think that was a possibility, even though most of your file is also classified, Octavia.”

“How do you know my name?”

“Like mine, yours is one that everyone knows. One of the people who came through the Anomaly from the planet we call Gaia. But you weren’t a native of Gaia, nor one of the colonists who arrived there from Earth centuries ago. You were different, a former queen on Earth who had sheltered what remained of humanity in a bunker above the keystone. You know I was the one who had that bunker built.”

“I know.”

“You know what happened in that bunker when I was there?”

“Probably not the same things that happened when I was.”

“Probably not, you’re right. It didn’t actually shelter people for very long. Just long enough for me to bring them here, and then begin the restoration mission. That was, of course, after I was hailed as the long-lost son of Omphalos, who had vanished years earlier.”

“So you left here and went to Earth while it was still living? I thought that was against the law.”

“It was. But my mother arranged it nonetheless. Like I said, we were a powerful family. Nothing’s left now, of course.” Cadogan turned around and looked further up the hill, where Octavia could make out some ruins. “That was my family home up there. I suppose that after the truth about my father came out, no one wanted to live there anymore and it fell into ruin. My father was a bad man. What about yours?”

“I never knew my father.”

“Consider yourself lucky then. But my family history isn’t why I’m here.”

“Why are you here?”

“I wanted to warn you. I wanted to warn you off of the path you’re on, because I promise you, it won’t bring anything good to the universe.”

“What, restoring Earth?”

“Come now, Octavia. Let’s not lie to each other. I know you’re aiming for more than just a restored Earth to bring your people back to. You want more than that.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Have it your way. But when your technology threatens to not just destroy a planet but the core of the universe itself, don’t say I didn’t warn you. All of your good intentions will turn to ruin as they have many times over throughout history.”

“I don’t _intend_ things. I know the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

“Yes, I suppose you would want me to be more precise. You’re a bright young woman, Octavia. Not just a thinker, either. You’re a doer. That is perhaps the scariest part. Because I knew another doer once, who thought technology held the key to saving the universe.” He turned his intense gaze onto Octavia. “It destroyed Earth instead.”

“You’re talking about ALIE. What Becca created.”

“I am. It didn’t have to be that way. It really didn’t. I warned her, too, but it didn’t make a difference. She still created that monster. That’s when I knew I had no choice but to come home and plan for the restoration of the Earth.”

“I have no intentions of recreating ALIE.”

“No, I suppose you don’t. Just remember, Octavia, that if you blow a hole in the fabric of Omphalos, then you doom the rest of the universe as well. There will be no bringing the human race back if the outer planets die off. Keep that in mind.”

Cadogan stood up, and made his way back down the path, heading back towards Omphalos.

Octavia stayed, because his last words rang through her mind and gave her an idea.

Who said that Omphalos needed to be the only place aware of the others?

Eliminate the secrecy, eliminate the pain. Working together towards a better world could be done by working together for a better _universe_ as a whole.

She had work to do.

**_OMPHALOS - OCTAVIA’S LAB - AFTERNOON_ **

“So Cadogan’s father was a bad man, and that’s why he came to Earth?” Ash asked. “Seems like a drastic move to go to an entirely different planet, when I’m sure there’s a legal system in place here. Or he could have just killed him himself.”

“He wasn’t ever forthcoming about the details.” Octavia said. “What I could piece together from the archives confirms that to be true - the Cadogans held spots on the Council for many generations. But then his father lost all of that power once his mother accused his father of abuse of practically every kind. But that only happened once Cadogan himself was already on Earth - I suppose his mother didn’t want to risk her son to face retribution from any of his father’s equally powerful friends. She disappears from the historical record not long after that. The father, however, faced harsh consequences in prison and was later exiled to a starting colony on a planet with his mind wiped of all of his memories.”

“So is something there his hidden pain?” Gaia asked. “It all seems terrible, of course, but if all of that is out there publicly, it seems unlikely that it would be a source of hidden pain.”

“It isn’t. There is something missing. It relates to tech somehow, it is why he hates tech so much. It also relates to here, to his roots in this world, as well. But what the details of that are, I don’t know.”

“If none of us know, but Becca said that between us and Madi, we’d have all the answers -” Gaia looked towards the bedroom.

Octavia nodded. “That means we must hope that the answer to that lies within Madi’s mind. Something she knows, something the Flame knew, has to be the key.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigedasleng:
> 
> Ai laik... - I am...  
> Ai ani Okteivia... - My aunt Octavia...
> 
> Other uses of Trigedasleng are translated inline.

**_SANCTUM - LAB - AFTERNOON_ **

Agreements made, Priya was escorted to the medical lab, and Gabriel was called upon to remove her drive and bring Karin back to life in the same way that he had done to Clarke.

As Karin woke up, Quincy and Vernon were overjoyed to see their friend again, confirming her identity with a few questions about their childhood. Karin had no recollection of being trapped in her mind, the time period too brief, combined with Priya not sleeping, meant that her mind was probably safe from the damage that Clarke had suffered, though Gabriel took the time to run some scans to confirm.

Russell had come to the lab along with Gabriel, and he now held Priya’s mind drive in his hand, contemplating it, turning to Bellamy.

“How did you manage to prevent your people from killing them all?” Russell asked him.

“It wasn’t me. It was Hope.”

Russell looked to where Hope was looking at something on the computers with Gabriel. “You’re on speaking terms with the girl now?”

“It’s complicated. But she convinced them to let us talk to Jordan and Priya by promising to take them back to Earth.”

“That was always our goal too.” Russell said. “Returning to Earth. But we didn’t know if it would ever be possible. I still don’t understand how it is possible now.”

“My sister.”

“So I hear. I had a sister, once. I assume she died on Earth when the bombs dropped. If she saw what we’d become… well, no point in thinking about that now. My only hope is that when you go, you’ll take my people with you as well. Don’t abandon them here because of what only a few of us have done to yours.”

“Don’t worry. We won’t leave them behind. But we’ll need you to convince them that they’ll want to leave the only homes they’ve ever known. I assume Gabriel told you about the science of why?”

“He did. I believe it, I’d noticed oddities in our lab results over the past decades, but what other choice did we have besides continue to survive here?”

“There was always the Anomaly.”

“There are people that went in and none of them ever came back. You’ll excuse my reluctance to send my entire civilization in there.”

“My sister came back.”

“That she did. But she’s the first. We had no way of knowing if going into the Anomaly meant instant death or a better life that people didn’t want to leave. While we could survive here, while we had something to lose, the stakes were too high. That’s been the case this entire time. Even though Gabriel has been obsessed with the Anomaly for over a century, he’s never gone in. Because he had something to lose by doing so.”

“What are you saying? That my sister went in because she had nothing to lose?”

“You’re the one who exiled her. You tell me.”

The memory bead chose that moment to throw Bellamy back into Hope’s memory, Russell’s words fresh in his mind as he watched his sister causing herself pain yet again, felt Hope’s terrified childhood fear, saw Diyoza’s panic at trying to manage a frightened child and a suicidal young woman at the same time.

Bellamy returned from the memory to find himself splayed out on the floor, Hope kneeling beside him.

“Life wasn’t easy for your mother.” Bellamy said as he sat up.

“What do you mean?”

“Trying to raise a child while also dealing with my sister’s issues, it can’t have been easy.”

Hope shrugged. “Sometimes she said she wasn’t sure if I had two mothers or if she had two daughters, but she never once complained.”

“Why did she help Octavia?”

“Because _ani_ needed help and my mother has empathy? Because she did what any _decent_ person would do when faced with someone who is lost and drowning and needs help finding their way out of the darkness?” 

“Octavia did say in that cave that without me as her compass, she was lost.”

“Right, because it is all about you.” Hope scoffed. “She didn’t have her memories of the twenty years of healing that she’d had. She didn’t have her memories that showed she didn’t need you to find her way out of the dark. But you could have been that person for her. You _should_ have been that person.”

“Tell her I’m sorry. That - that just like I told Jordan, we’ll do better. _I’ll_ do better. I’ll try to understand.”

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean? Can’t you - connect with her, like Raven does?”

Hope bit her lip and shook her head. “No. I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not connected. To anyone. Not anymore.”

Bellamy remembered what Octavia had told him, through Raven, that morning. “O said you were answering for what you did. Did she disconnect you? Why?”

“Because I was being vengeful instead of righteous. We all felt the pain of that. I have to earn my way back in, just as you must earn yours.”

“And you’re okay with that? Even after going off on me for leaving her in the woods?”

“Cutting me out of a mental network so that I can learn from my mistakes is _not_ the same thing as risking her life by abandoning her alone in a toxic forest when she already wanted to die, Bellamy.” Hope snapped at him. “The day after she met my mother in that forest, they were trapped in quicksand. My mother asked her if she wanted to die. You know what _ani_ did? Pressed her forehead against my mother’s gun and told her to do it.”

“But she didn’t do it.”

“No. Because my mother has empathy and saw the pain in _ani’s_ heart. That’s when she promised herself she’d never abandon her even when everyone else had.”

“I didn’t know things were so bad for her.”

“You didn’t want to know. But you have the opportunity to change that now.”

“How do I do that, Hope?” Bellamy asked. “How?”

**_SANCTUM - VILLAGE - AFTERNOON_ **

Raven, Murphy and Emori stood between a nervous crowd of Sanctum residents, and an increasingly agitated crowd of Wonkru, waiting to see if Karin would return unharmed. Hoping that it would happen before tensions reached a breaking point.

Thankfully, Karin appeared at the top of the steps, escorted by Quincy and Vernon, and Wonkru began to relax, seeing that everything was all right. They had gotten their own back.

As Karin was welcomed back into the crowd of Wonkru, relieved smiles on people’s faces for one of the first times in what had to be a long time, a long time since anything had gone _right_ for them, Murphy wondered what it would have been like to be a part of such a world, such a society. He’d _felt_ it, of course, through Octavia’s memories, but that still wasn’t the same thing as living it, day in and day out, for those six hard years.

Given the nightmares they’d endured, the horrors they’d witnessed - seeing any kind of hope was a gift, it seemed. Given their comparatively easy existence on the Ring, he wondered just what in the hell he’d been complaining about up there. He knew pain, he knew the despair that came with having no hope, and it wasn’t something he’d experienced on the Ring. There he’d just been his own worst enemy.

Just like since he’d come to Sanctum. Dying hadn’t been the worst part of the past weeks. The worst part had been the way his people had looked at him for the choices he’d made, even when all he’d done was to protect his people, even if it hadn’t worked out. Abby had told him that he’d be judged for the reasons he’d done things, not for the things themselves, but when that approach had resulted in her death - how could he live like that?

He made a choice, and turned to Raven. “Take this drive out of my head.”

Raven looked taken aback. “Excuse me?”

“Take this drive out of my head. I - I thought joining them was the right thing to save our people, but it didn’t. And it won’t do anything to help us in the future. I know no one’s ever going to take an innocent life to bring me back.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Besides, with Sheidheda on the loose, it is the survivor’s move, right? I haven’t been able to get into my mindspace, whatever that is, to get the protection that Octavia’s offering, so - so take it out.”

“Okay. Everything looks to be calming down here, so we can go up to Jackson in the lab and take it out. Emori?”

“Take mine out too.” Emori said. “If they want to believe we’re Daniel and Kaylee Prime, if we need them to believe, it isn’t as if they’re going to check for the drives first. We can still act the part.”

Raven nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Before they could move, however, they heard the crackle of the microphone on the balcony of the palace, overlooking the village. They turned to see Bellamy, Hope and Russell standing near it, ready to address the crowd. Bellamy stepped up to the microphone first.

“Wonkru, as you have seen, we are glad to be able to return your sister Karin to you. She should experience no lasting side effects of what has now been undone.

“Now to uphold our end of the deal. What Hope said is true. We can tell you the full story in longer detail later, but what is important to know for now is that we will be going home. We will be going back to Earth.

“We believed that there was no bringing back Earth, but we were wrong. It has been restored, and we will be able to make a home there again. So don’t get too comfortable here. When Madi and Octavia return to us, they will show us the way. They will show us the way back home.”

Hope took the microphone from Bellamy to say her piece. _“Ai laik_ Hope Diyoza. You don’t know me, but you know my mother. I grew up on a world far away from here, where twenty years passed in what here was the blink of an eye. _Ai ani Okteivia_ helped my mother raise me. She is not the _Blodreina_ you once knew. She helped restore Earth, the gift that she promised you when you lived under the ground is now made real.”

“Citizens of Sanctum, Earth is to be your home as well.” Russell said as Hope passed the microphone to him. “We’ve all known that this world isn’t safe, that this world has many dangers that can hurt us, and the Primes promised you that we would return to Earth one day, that we would take you home.

“The time for that is now - most of our beloved Primes have given their lives to see this promise fulfilled. It is what we’ve always wanted for you. You’ll have a new green Earth, not the desolate ground that we left hundreds of years ago. For all that has happened here, know that I have always been looking out for you. I hope you’ll accept this gift and build a new society on a world without the dangers you’ve had to live with here. Please make your preparations and pack your things, you must be ready to leave on a moment’s notice.”

Russell stepped back from the microphone, and Bellamy looked at him quizzically.

“What is it?” Russell asked.

“It sounds like you’re sending your people to Earth but not yourself.” Bellamy said. “You’re not coming?”

“Do I even deserve to after all of the evil that I’ve done?”

“Maybe none of us deserve it, but my sister has put in the work to earn it. She’s chosen to share it with us. I have to believe that matters.”

“You love your sister?”

“I do.”

“Sounds like she did have something to lose by going into the Anomaly after all.”

“No. You were right. The way I cast her out, the way I was cruel to her - she didn’t have something to lose by going into the Anomaly. But she would have lost a great deal if she stayed there. She chose to come back for us.”

“But she’s gone again. You said so yourself.”

“To save my mother.” Hope commented. “To save my mother from an evil man who will never stop until he gets what he wants. Until he erases everything Octavia has brought into the world.”

“Do you know who your mother was?” Russell asked.

“I know what she did on Earth. I also know that it is the victors who write the books.” Hope said, her look issuing a challenge to Russell. “If we measure intentions and actions and consequences, who really comes out on top here? You or my mother? You admitted yourself that you’ve done evil.”

“Fair point.” Russell sighed. “I hope that the opportunity of a new world won’t be wasted on us.”

**_MADI’S MINDSPACE - COMMANDERS’ DREAMSPACE - EVENING_ **

After what felt like hours of meditating and whispering _Hofli noun kom Bekka Pramheda laik ai shouna (May the wisdom of Bekka Pramheda be my guide),_ Madi finally entered her mindspace.

As she expected, she was back in the Commanders’ dreamspace, but instead of being alone with Sheidheda as she had been before, the table was surrounded by the other Commanders.

Most of the other Commanders. Two were missing - Sheidheda, and Bekka Pramheda herself.

_“Weron Bekka Pramheda?”_ Madi asked. _(Where is Bekka Pramheda?)_

_“Bekka Pramheda na ste kamp raun yu otaim.” (Bekka Pramheda will always be with you.)_ said Petra, one of the earliest Commanders, from before the time of the clans.

_“Weron Bekka Pramheda kom nau?” (Where is Bekka Pramheda right now?)_

“She’s protecting people we both care about, Madi.” Lexa said softly. “Trust that.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We are merely memories, avatars that exist within your mind, a reflection of what you saw when you had the Flame before we were destroyed.”

“And Bekka Pramheda wasn’t?”

“No.” Lexa smiled softly. “She protected you from Sheidheda as much as she could. She is still doing that work now.”

“But I need her here now. I have questions. Her tech started all of this, she endorsed Octavia’s tech, and somehow I think it is all connected. What she knows and what Octavia knows.”

“It is. But before we get to that, we need to focus on you. What are you looking for, Madi?”

“I… I need to understand. I’m not the Commander anymore. I lost control, I let him in, and - all of you are gone. So how can you still be here to help me? Why aren’t you angry at me?”

“Do you want us to be angry at you?” Lexa asked.

“I deserve it. I - I got angry and I didn’t practice a steady mind. I understand now why that was so important.”

“We can all be held captive by our emotions. I used to think that was a bad thing, but then I learned that love is strength, not weakness. A steady mind only goes so far. A steady mind also risks callousness, it risks harshness, it freezes your soul. You are still young, and now with this new tech, with thousands across the universe that you can ask for advice, that you can learn from, that you can _feel_ with - you will learn how to harness your emotions for the greater good.”

“You still believe that? Even though it was your love for Clarke that killed you?”

“I do. I may have made mistakes in my life, but loving Clarke wasn’t one of them. Don’t be afraid of your emotions, Madi. Open your heart to the new possibilities this tech grants you, and by doing so, you’ll find your strength.”

“I will.”

“Good. Now, about Bekka Pramheda. You’re right that everything is connected. But it is less about the tech, less about the Commander, and more about the woman. It is the story of Bekka Pramheda.”

“Tell me.”

“We’ll show you.” Lexa looked around to the seven other Commanders at the table. “Bekka Pramheda left us each with a memory to give to you. See them and understand. Within you will find the key you seek.”

Lexa stood up, coming around to where Madi was sitting, and the other Commanders joined her, each of them touching a finger to Madi’s forehead in turn, to the place where the Commander’s emblem used to go.

_\- a teenage boy running down a dark hall with a newborn girl wrapped in a blanket in his arms -_

_\- a teenage girl, holding a letter in her hands, uncomprehending of what it was that she was reading -_

_\- a young woman, graduating from university, watching a man approach with a different letter in his hand -_

_\- arguments with that same man under the glowing lights of the symbol of the Commanders -_

_\- the great open green spaces surrounding the mansion, far away from the city that had once been home but now held only nightmares -_

_\- watching as the world was destroyed from a spaceship in orbit around Earth -_

_\- a dark cell, she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face, she didn’t know how long she had been there or if anyone would ever come for her, if he would ever come back -_

_\- the scorching burning fire as she pleaded for mercy from the same always-present man with the eagle-sharp eyes -_

Madi opened her eyes, and all of the Commanders were gone, but Octavia was standing next to her.

“Did you see?” Madi asked her. “Do you _know?”_

Octavia nodded, her face as white as a sheet. “I think so.”

“I can’t believe that he would do that.”

“I can.” Octavia whispered. “I can believe it. It all makes sense now. I know what it will take to unlock him. Thank you, Madi. We’ve got all the pieces we need.”

“And you never knew?”

“No. Because she was a secret. Because there was no record of her here, and he was careful to say nothing.”

“But now you know. Bekka Pramheda was Bill Cadogan’s sister.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coming next week:
> 
> _**7x06 God's A Bit Of A Bastard** \- Raven sends Bellamy, Hope and Murphy on a risky mission, while Cadogan tightens his grip on Omphalos, and Octavia considers the implications of Madi’s revelation about the man's history. But as his story is revealed, the key to reaching him seems further away than ever. _
> 
> Be sure to subscribe to the series (OsleyaKomWonkru's Season 7 of The 100) so that you get updates for the whole season and not just the individual episodes!


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